Street and highway safety is one of the foremost concerns of public safety. As the number of automobiles in service continues to increase, so too the number of deaths and injuries resulting from traffic accidents has increased proportionally. Many of these incidents are a result of a vehicle breaking down which results in a person pulling the vehicle along the side of road and exiting the vehicle in order to inspect or repair it. During this time, that person and vehicle can be extremely difficult to see and this situation can subsequently end in a major accident if a passing vehicle strikes either the vehicle or the person. In an effort to increase driver awareness and visibility, law enforcement officers, truck drivers, and regular motorists often keep road flares in their vehicle to provide warning for oncoming vehicles in such situations.
While such flares do work, there are a number of issues associated with their use. Firstly, they are incendiary devices that may pose a safety risk. Additionally, such flares often have only a limited burn time, which may not be long enough to clear the vehicles. Finally, after the task is completed the flares are difficult to extinguish and are often just thrown off of the side of the road which can cause additional incidents such as littering, risk to wildlife, or even fires.
Various attempts have been made to provide roadside emergency signaling devices of various electrical types. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 3,589,328; U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,976; U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,028; U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,636; U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,253; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,808,291. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not sufficiently visible or proactive in terms of alerting oncoming vehicles. Moreover, many such devices are limited as to where and how they can be positioned and operated. Also, many such devices are difficult to transport constantly in a secure and unobtrusive manner. Furthermore, many such devices do not provide a range of signaling adapted to protect a user and a vehicle thoroughly and simultaneously. In addition, many such devices do not actively. Accordingly, there exists a need for an emergency notification system without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.